Method of making embossed printing plates



April 12, 1966 n fllllllllllllll/ A. E. J. OWEN METHOD OF MAKING EMBOSSED PRINTING PLATES Filed March 6, 1963 INVENTOR. ARTHUR EDWARD JEFFREY OWEN United States Patent() 3,245,344 fMETHOD .0F MAKING EMBOSSED PRINTING PLATES Arthur ,Edward Jelfrey Owen, Gates Mills, Ohio, assigner .to addressograph-Multigraph `Corporation, Cleveland, h10, a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 6, 196,3, Ser, No. 263,350 1 Claim. r(Cl. 101-401. 1)

This invention relates to printing plates and the production thereof and espectially to printing plates of the kind which bearembossed type characters and which are to be Vpassed sequentially through a printing machine Where imprints are made therefrom. This application is a continuation-impart of application Serial No. 837,613, :tiled September 2, 1959, now abandoned.

One well-known form of business machine used for the printing of repetitive data such as periodic mailing lists, premium notices and the like is one in which relatively small printingjplates are used, each plate being embossed individually with type characters. Such plates are passed in sequence through the vmachine toa print-ing station where each printing plate, selected for printing, is effective Vthrough an interposed inked ribbon or the like, to 4effect an impression from the embossed type characters on such plate. These printing plates are more Vor less of va permanent Anature inasumch as they are formed from thin sheet metal or tough plastic, and hence vvcan be used over and over again repeatedly for printing records of 'high quality without apprehension as to accuracy of the printed Ydata of deterioration of the type characters.

In some machines, printing plates of the aforesaid kind arelpassed through the machine one by one, unassociated with any carrier frame, but in other instances each plate is mounted individually on :an associated frame, which may have an area allocated to receive punched hole data representations `or the like, and for reasons to be eX- plained "hereinafter, .it is also conventional 'in such -instances to mount 'an index card on 'the frame, Vwhich Vindex Vcard is imprinted by and from the related printing plate.

Printing plates of the aforesaid character are mounted in trays or drawers which are stored in suitable cabinets when .notbeing employed in imprinting operations. Inasmuchas such printingplatesusually bear type characters from which a vname and address ,can ,be printed, it is .often advantageous to refer ,thereto when the samevare stored as .aforesaid because of a change of addressor for other reasons. In those instances Where the .printing plates are of suc-h anature as -tobe ,included on a frame Which'includes anindeX card bearingan impression from at least selected of the type characters alforded on the related prntingrplate, reference lcan .be :made `to sucha card to readily ascertain the data that will be printed by the related plate.

Inasmuch as `type characters are .usually embossed ,on printing ,platesof .thevaforesaid character to appear in reversereadingform in relief on one side and intaglioon the other side, it is customary to ,refer tothe intaglio faces of the type characters, which afford direct reading, incidental to determining just what-,the :.type vcharacters Willprirrt. :In the'instances ofaprintingplatenothaving ICC an index card associated therewith, this has been the customary way in .which .to read the type characters embossed o rr Vsuch a plate. Even in the instance where a printing .plate is associated with a card on which an impression is made from but a single line ,of the type characters embossed on the plate, lit has been customary to resort to Vtheintaglio faces of the embossed type vcharacters in other lines on the plate Ain -or-der to facilitate reading of the same. This becomes necessary, Vfor eX- arnple, when a change in address that may be imprinted from the type characters is necessitated.

The embossing operation by Vwhich type lcharacters are produced on printing plates of the aforesaid character, either on metallic or plastic plates, results inthe production of what may well be called .highlights and shadows, especially in the intaglio faces of the type characters. Such highlights and ushadows make it somewhat difficult to readily read the intaglio faces of the embossed type characters when it is ydesired so .to .do for purposes of veriiication .or for reasons `such as those set forth hereinabove.

The entailed problem is one that has been -long recognized in the art and there have been numerous proposals in `the `art for facilitating the reading ofthe intaglio vfaces of .type characters embossed Yon :printing plates of .the aforesaid kind. Thus, Vit has been proposed to burnish printing plates on which such type characters are to .appear so ,as to thereby eliminate as far as possible the formation of highlights and .shadows as aforesaid. It has also been proposed to coat the faces of printing plates, on which embossed Vtype Acharacters are ,to appear in intaglio, -to thereby reduce the production of highlights and shadows and facilitate the reading ofthe intagliovfaces of the type characters. ;It has alsobeen proposed `to ill the intaglio faces with paint or the like to facilitate reading, .but heretofore such filling of-thetype characters :has required manual operation whichwas consideredfby many users of printingplates of the aforesaid characteras Vbeing too expensive `to be warranted.

In View of t-he foregoing, it is the primary object of the `preser'rtinvention to enable the intaglio `faces of` type characters lembossed on 4a printing plate of theaforesaid kind Ato be easily and inexpensively arranged `for' eX- peditious reading and to do lthis as an incident to the embossing of the type characters.

Speciiically, it is Ian object Iof the present invention Yto effectively deposita pigment coatingor lling restricted substantiallyito the Vbottom ,of each embossed ,intaglio character of the aforesaid kind `simultaneously .with the embossing thereof,.and Vto do this 4by interposingbetween the punch and die of the embossing tmachine va l,strip of toughplasticrbearing a pigment ycoatingfon the side ,which faces tcwardthe die of the embossingmachine. Hence, when -tlre punchand die are .brought Atogether to .form-the embossed type character, the plastic strip willat the same time be stretched, -causing Vthe corresponding portion of the fpigment coating to be `cit-set into the resultantintaglio character. Resort ris had to .wa-tough plastic :strip .in -accordance -with the present invention .because .so :to fdo avoids breaking or puncturing of .thestripbythepunch of Athe embossing punch anddie set Afora particular type Character. Furthermore, andin-accordancezwiththefpresent invention the coating or filling is only applied to the face of the tough plastic strip opposite the :face thereof to be engaged by the punch of a particular punch and die set.

It is a further object of this invention to apply the coating or filling material to the face of the strip as aforesaid with sufficient adhesion to prevent inadvertent displacement of the material and yet enable expeditious separation of the material from the strip in the course of an embossing operation. Therefore, the material is effectively deposited in the intaglio character in a facile manner and there is no resultant fouling of the punch and die set in the embossing machine. Another object of the present invention is to assure sufficient adherence of the pigment coating to its carrier strip so that it will not smudge and become easily dissipated prior to use, while at the same time enabling olf-set of the pigment coating from the strip with an intaglio depression as aforesaid, under embossing pressure, to be realized -with resultant assured adherence of the pigment coating to the plate.

Another object of the present invention is to develop and utilize essential, physical characteristics that are necessary to eicacious practices under the present invention.

Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claim and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings which, by Way of illustration, show a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the principle thereof and what is now considered to be the best mode contemplated for applying that principle. vention embodying the same or equivalent principle may be used as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the perview of the appended claim.

In the drawing:

FIG, l is a fragmentary view of a portion of the intaglio side of a printing plate bearing conventional embossures;

FIG. 1A is a view similar to FIG. 1 but of the reverse side of the plate;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but illustrating the nature of the embossures achieved under the present invention;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are schematic sectional views illustrating stages in the production of an embossed printing plate under the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view substantially on the line 5 5 of FIG. 2.

lIn FIG. l of the drawing there is illustrated a fragment of a printing plate P of the kind to be used in printing machines as explained hereinabove. The plate P is illustrated as bearing embossed data ED represented by the type characters IL. These characters 11. are to be understood as being of intaglio form as viewed in FIG, 1, that is, are depressed or indented such that the opposite or hidden side of the plate P will have the characters 1L of raised or relief form as shown in FIG. 1A effective to produce a print on a sheet through an interposed ribbon or the like. Thus when a plate as P, FIG. 1, is turned so that the relief parts of the data ED will be outermost, the data IL are not directly readable as will be apparent from FIG. 1A. In other words, the embossed data such as ED on a printing plate as P are directly readable only from the intaglio side, and FIG. 1 can be considered as a typical showing of the diicutly in reading the characters, this being due primarily to the uniformity of glossiness of the plate throughout and the smallness of the characters, bearing in mind that FIGS. 1, 1A and 2 are on a greatly enlarged scale.

In accordance with the present invention, the intaglio characters are to be faced at least in the at bottom surface thereof with a pigment coating simultaneously with the formation of the embossures, without interference in the formation of the embossures under the desired type font design. The pigment will be selected as one highly contrastive with the color of the material of which the Other embodiments of the inprinting plate is made, the following being merely illustrative: black pigment, white or silvery plate; blue pigment, red plate; and so on. Resultantly, this will afford highly accentuated intaglio characters in the plate as 10 illustrated in FIG. 2.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, printing plates of the kind under consideration, of whatever material (metal or plastic) have the embossed data formed thereon by way of individual cooperating punch and die sets such as the punch 11 and the cooperating die 12. The flat plate blank as 10B, FIG. 3, which is to be embossed, is of course interposed between the punch and die arrangement in the related embossing machine, and in order to enable a character to be formed, the cooperating punch and die elements are moved toward one another as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 3 with such force as to deform the plate in the manner illustrated in FIG. 4 resulting in the formation of an embossed type character T, FIGS. 4 and 5.

Under and in accordance with the present invention, a pigmented coating 20, FIGS. 4 and 5, is deposited in the intaglio part ID of the type character T, and this is accomplished as an incident to embossing and under circumstances where there is no fouling of the punches and dies. In achieving this, a pigmented carrier which includes a strip 21, of tough, very thin, easily deformable plastic is interposed between the punch 11 and the side of the plate blank 10B where the intaglio depression will appear. Advantageously, the plastic can be .a polyester film such as that known under the trademark Mylar plastic, al-

though other films can be used. The face of the plastic strip 21 opposite the punch 11 is provided with a readily oH-settable or pressure-transfer pigmented coating 25 of a nature to be described in detail hereinafter.

Mylar plastic, which is a polyester lrn chemically identified as polyethylene terephthalate resin, by its very nature, is inherently tough and capable of withstanding severe deforming stresses without breaking or rupturing. Hence, when the embossing force is effected on the punch and die set as 11 and 12, the coated Mylar strip 21 will be squeezed as illustrated in FIG. 4 so that the pigmented coating 25 thereon is pressed tightly into the intaglio character ID, and the resultant pressures will cause the portion of the pigmented coating squeezed into the intaglio character to olf-set by virtue of pressure transfer on to the plate 10 as a bottom facing for the intaglio character ID as illustrated in FIG. 5. Thus, while the entailed pressures are effective to displace or squeeze off the pigmented coating from the carrier 21, the carrier strip or lm 21 itself remains intact and there is consequently no fouling of the punch 11 likely to interfere with subsequent embossing operations, especially since the pigmented coating is restricted to one side of the carrier, namely, the side facing away from the punch. Moreover, the film is so thin as to be skin-tight, and hence the embossures are formed with precision.

Other plastic lms of thermoplastic nature which can be used are: Pliolm (rubber hydrochloride), polyethylene plastic lms and vinyl plastic films.

It has been found in accordance with the present invention that it is important to assure the following essentially physical conditions under room temperature conditions for the plastic carrier strip, the pigment coating thereon, and the plate to be embossed:

(l) Adhesiveness of the pigment coating to the plastic carrier strip without smudging while being handled; (2) Releasability of the pigment coating from the carrier to the plate under embossing pressure; and

(3) Adhesiveness or anchoring of the released or off-set pigment coating (image-wise) to the intaglio depression in the embossed plate.

The foregoing three critical requirements entail: (a) a thermoplastic carrier about 0.5 to 1.0 mil in thickness and which will resist rupture during embossing; `(b) an adhesive material in the pigment coating which is adhesive to the plastic carrier strip `but which will release under embossing conditions; (c) an adhesive material in the pigment coating which is adhesive to the material of which the plate to be embossed is composed; and -(d) a non-drying component in the pigment coating to prevent the pigment coating from aging, `that is, undergoing embrittlement either on the carrier Y(where it would otherwise crack .and peel vupon handling .the strip .after a prolonged period of idleness.) or after olf-setting iinto the embossed indentations of the plate (where it would otherwise be likely to ake off .or chip during rough handling of the plate).

By using very thin film, there is assurance that the film, when embossed, will not interfere with proper formation of the embossure to duplicate the precise details of the embossing punch and die. Thus, theiilm becomes a skintight lining. Particularly in the instance of metallic plates to be embossed, it appears important to include in the pigment coating an abrasive which will scar and pock the intaglio depression during driving of the pigment coating thereinto when forming the embossure, thereby in effect innoculating the intaglio depression with the off-set pigment, particularly the bottom face of the intaglio depression.

The following is an example meeting the above specified requirements, and range tolerances or variations are parenthetically noted:

Ingredient Amount Function Vinyl chloride-vinyl 7 grams Continuous, universal theracetate copolymer moplastic matrix vehicle (VMCH grade). for remaining ingredients. Toluene 1 35 ml. (25-50 Agent for dispersing and mL). wetting the resin ingredients vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer prior to solution in the strong solvent. 2 nitropropane 2 50 (40-60 Solvent.

Sucrose acetate iso- 4 grams (3-5 A plasticizer and stabilizer butyrate. grams). which hinders rearrangement and separation of the various liquid and solid 1ctfllponents of the transfer Glyceryl phthalate 8 grams (6-10 Adheres the ofi-set pigment alkyd resin. grams). coating to the embossed p Mogo varnish 8 grams (4-12 Extender for the oil and grams). pigment. Mineral or vegetable 6 grams (5-7 N on-drying carrier or veoil. grams). hicle for pigment material. Carbon black 10 grams (l0-15 Pigment.

grams Iron oxide 10 grams (5-10 Abrasive pigment for emgralns bossed plate.

1 Or benzene. 2 Cilcetone, methylethyl ketone, or methylisobutyl ketone can also be use The iron oxide in the above example, as noted, is an abrasive which is abrasive to materials of which plates to be embossed in accordance with Example 1 may be composed. This particular abrasive can be replaced by equivalents because it serves, in the example above, as an abrasive which does not detract substantially from the intensity of the carbon black pigment. The solvent in Example 1 evaporates after the pigment coating has been spread on a plastic carrier strip, for example Mylar plastic used subsequently to emboss metal plates in a particularly eiicacious manner. The oil prevents subsequent embrittlement of the pigment coating, either on the lilm or when off-set into an embossure. A lm of polypropylene plastic can be satisfactorily substituted for the Mylar plastic iilm. Thus, it will be seen that the requirements are essentially physical in nature.

Example 2.-Plgmenl ed `coating Ingredient Amount Function Vinyl ehloride- 200 grams Continuous, universal, thervinyl acetate comoplastic matrix vehicle for polymer-(preferaremaining ingredients. bly a mixture of VMCH grade and 10% VYNW grade). Toluene-1 950 ml. (800- Agent for dlspersing and 1100,ml.). wetting theresin ingredients vinyl chloride-vinyl .acetate copolymer-prior to Asolutioninthe strongLsolvent. 2 nitropropane 2 1400 ml. (1100- Solvent.

Plasticizer and stabilizer agents which adhere the pig- ,ment coating to the plastic Sucrose acetatesisograms (60- film, lwhich plasticizes coat- -butyrate 1-40grams). ing to promote its release or Dicotyl phthalate 3-. 200 grams (150- oH-set to the embossed plate,

250 grams). and which hinders rearrangement and separation of the various liquid and solid components of the transfer film. Glyceryl phthalate grams (140- Adheres the ot-set pigment alkyd resin. 0 grams). coating to the embossed plate. Mogo varnish 80 grams (60- Extender for the oil and pig- 100 grams). ment. Mineral or vegetable 40 grams (B5-42 N on-drying carrier or vehicle oil. grams). for pigment material. Carbon black 240 grams (220- Pigment.

260 grams). Iron oxide 60 grams (l0-100 Abrasive pigment for metal grams). plates.

1 See Example 1 above.

2 See Example 1 above.

3 Can be replaced by tricresyl phosphate or equivalent primary plasticizers such as dibutyl or dicapy'rl phthalate.

Example 2 is specifically applicable to the embossing of plastic plates, as distinguished from metal plates, and the variations between Example 1 and Example 2, including the incorporation of dioctyl phthalate in Example 2, are concerned with this difference. The physical requirements of the ingredients in the coating, however, remain the sarne.

The coating of Example 2 is preferably applied to polypropylene film, although the other kinds of film noted can be used. Both the coated film of Example 1 and that of Example 2 satisfy the objects of the present invention and can be used successfully in the procedure described in connection with the drawing.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention alfords a practical way of embossing a thin, rectangular plate to become a printing plate for credit or like transactions, Iwhile enabling the type characters thereof to be easily read by Way of a pigment coating in the intaglio depressions that contrasts with the background color of the plate. This is made possible by so formulating the lm and pigment coating thereon as to assure retention of the coating on the lm while permitting it to off-set therefrom under lthe embossing pressure, to assure virtually skin-tight fitting of the coated iilm about the die element of the embossing elements which produce the intaglio depression. Specific examples have been set forth, including ingredients, but it will be appreciated that variations as to the named ingredients are quite possible once the physical relationships are taught under and in accordance with the present invention and can be adopted as a routine manner; and hence While I have illustrated and described preferred practices of the invention, it is to be understood that Ythese are capable of variation and modification.

I claim:

A method of producing an embossed printing plate comprising: positioning the plate to be embossed between a punch and die set; interposing between the plate and the punch a pigment carrier comprising a strip of tough thermoplastic lm of about 0.5 to 1.0 mil in thickness coated with a pressure transferable pigment coating which when applied to the film comprises the following materials approximately in the parts by Iweight as indicated,

Abrasive pigment particles About 5.

About 25. Not more than about 7.5.

Not more than about 5.25.

A non-drying pigment vehicle And adhesive material to adhere the coating to the plate when the coating is driven by pressure on to the plate Not less than about 5.

and actuating the punch and die set to emboss said plate and simultaneously to press and produce pressure transfer of a corresponding portion of the coating into the intaglio character of the resultant embossure.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/ 1933 Nixon. 2/ 1934 Wickwire 101-32 X 5 1944 Gibbs. 7/1951 Ress lOl- 401.1 5/1956 Mumma 117-36.1 8/1957 Carver et al lOl-401.1 4/1958 Clancy et al 197-172 10/1962 Graf et al. 117-36..1 7/1963 Maierson et al 117-36.1

FOREIGN PATENTS 8/ 1959 France.

DAVID KLEIN, Primary Examiner. 

